Axion production in unstable magnetized plasmas

Abstract

Axions, the hypothetical particles restoring the charge-parity symmetry in the strong sector of the Standard Model, and one of the most prone candidates for dark matter, are well-known to interact with plasmas. In a recent publication [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 181803 (2018)], we have shown that if the plasma dynamically responds to the presence of axions, then a new quasi-particle (the axion plasmon-polariton) can be formed, being at the basis of a new generation of plasma-based detection techniques. In this work, we exploit the axion-plasmon hybridization to actively produce axions in streaming magnetized plasmas. The produced axions can then be detected by reconversion into photons, in a scheme that is similar to the light-shining-a-wall experiments.

Tunable Axion Plasma Haloscopes

“…The resonant mixing of axions with plasmons was first noted in [24][25][26], but it was generally ignored until recently [27][28][29]. Concurrent with this work the idea of plasma-shining-throughwall has been introduced [30]. Here, we consider the mixing of axions to tunable plasmas which can operate at cryogenic temperatures, thus leading to the first practical proposal to search for axions using axion-plasmon resonance.…”

Axion-plasmon or magnetized plasma effect on an observable shadow and gravitational lensing of a Schwarzschild black hole

“…We consider a generalized electromagnetic theory taking into account the axion-photon coupling [11,47]…”

“…where x α are the spacetime coordinates, p α and u β are the four-momentum and four-velocity of the photon respectively and n is the refractive index (n = ω/k, where k is the wave number). In the case of an axion-plasmon contribution, the refractive index is expressed as follows [11]…”

“…In the laboratory, axions may also be produced by an experiment based on a principle 'plasmashinning-through-a-wall', where an electron beam passes through a magnetized plasma yields a beam-plasma instability thereby creating plasmon which upon interacting with the applied magnetic field converts to axions. An intervening wall allows axions to pass through and converting them to photons which are later probed by a single-photon microwave detector [11]. This model involves a free parameter Ω which represents the axionplasmon coupling, one of our aims is to constrain Ω and determine its impact on the BH shadow using the latest available astronomical observations.…”

Field quantization in quantum plasmas: Photon and plasmon charge and mass

“…Importance of quantum plasmas, and its different areas of research, is now well understood: from solid-state physics [1] to laser fusion and laser-plasma interactions in the ultra-intense regime, [2][3][4] matter in extreme conditions, [5,6] dense plasmas in astrophysics, [7] quantum free-electron lasers, [8] neutrino hydrodynamics, [9][10][11] and axion-plasma physics. [12][13][14][15] Inside such a broad area of knowledge, we can nevertheless identify two basic problems. One is associated with electron quantization and the other with electromagnetic field quantization.…”